“What can be worse than that?” Will racked his brain. His cut of Cromby? People might gossip but surely that was not newsworthy?
“How about you being spotted with your mistress in broad daylight entering a gambling house!”
Will scowled. “I don’t have a mistress.”
Calstone tapped the paper. “You do according to this. Now I am well aware of your nature and the sort of man you are, but is your wife? I suggest you explain to her before she catches wind of it from someone else.”
Will leaped to his feet. “She wouldn’t believe such trash.”
“Are you certain? Would you stake your life on that assumption? Your pretty wife has been skeptical about your character from the start. Or have you forgotten how she boarded a ship to the Americas to get away from you? Where is she, by the by?”
“She is out shopping with her friends.” He’d wanted to accompany her but had been pulled away by his man of affairs.
“You are doomed, then,” Calstone said. “Most women read the gossip rags before they leave for outings. Your wife is bound to hear of this before she returns home.”
Will slapped a hand on the desk. “Damn it! Who could be behind this?”
“Do you still have to ask?” Calstone raised a brow. “You’ve offended only one person recently that I can think of who would deliver you such a low blow.”
“Cromby,” Will growled. “That bloody weasel.”
“Seems like just the sort of cowardly thing he or one of his cronies would do. Not only did you cut him at the ball, but you and Deerhurst also had him blacklisted from all the clubs in London.”
Will balled his fists. “He deserved it.”
Their gazes flew to the corridor as the sound of a slammed door reached them.
Calstone chuckled. “Seems your wife has learned of your rumored affair. I shall have your tombstone commissioned.”
“Shut it,” Will bit out, striding from the study, ready to explain to his wife what utter nonsense the absurd rumor was.What met his sight, however, was not a furious wife, but two very frantic friends of hers.
“What’s wrong?” Will demanded. “Where is Harriet?”
“Let me guess,” Calstone drawled from behind him. “At the docks?”
Will glared at him. His wife wouldn’t dash off without confronting him. She wouldn’t flee at all. Peel his skin from his body maybe, but not run away. In fact, he hadn’t truly thought she would believe the rumors until the arrival of her friends.
“What docks?” Lady Selena burst out, heaving for breath as though she’d been running at full speed. “Kidnapped!”
Will froze. “Say that again?”
“Yes, please,” Calstone said. “Our lovely Lady Harriet has beenwhat?”
“Harriet has been kidnapped!” Lady Leonora reiterated. “She—she’s gone.”
Will shut out everything else and simply asked, “When? Where?”
“Just now,” Lady Leonora said. “We were at the shop purchasing a gift for you.” Will’s gaze flicked to the package she lifted up. “When we finished, we ran into Ophelia and Rochester and learned... well, we learned...”
“About Leeds’s mistress,” Calstone finished for her.
Damn it. “Don’t say it like that. People might misunderstand. I don’t have a mistress.”
“That’s a relief,” Lady Selena said, patting her chest. “We have enough rogues in London as it is. However, Harriet was, well, I don’t quite know what she was, she started to laugh rather hysterically when she heard, and in that moment of inattention, three men set upon her and dragged her into a carriage. They even covered her head with a sack! Ophelia and Rochester set out after them. We came here.” She inhaled deeply.
Will’s heart sank.
Laughed hysterically? Three men? A sack over her head? Fury, unlike what he had ever experienced exploded in his chest. Who dared do this to his wife? To him? There would be hell to pay today.
